If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Reported speech

Hello!
I'll be really grateful if someone helps me with this:
I'm not sure how to apply sequence of tenses in reported speech, when reported sentence is a time clause (and reporting verb is, of course, in the past tense). For instance:'What were you doing when I left?'
Should it go like this:a) She asked me what I had been doing when she had left.ORb) She asked me what I had been doing when she left.

And one more, just to make clear what puzzles me:

'My father didn't say anything when I came home,'
a) She said that her father hadn't said anything when she had come home.
ORb) She said that her father hadn't said anything when she came home.Somehow, solutions under b) sound much better ,in my opinion. On the other hand, sequence of tenses wasn't applied consistently in those sentences.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to your replies.

Re: Reported speech

Originally Posted by aleksije

Hello!
I'll be really grateful if someone helps me with this:
I'm not sure how to apply sequence of tenses in reported speech, when reported sentence is a time clause (and reporting verb is, of course, in the past tense). For instance:'What were you doing when I left?'
Should it go like this:a) She asked me what I had been doing when she had left.ORb) She asked me what I had been doing when she left.

Re: Reported speech

Originally Posted by aleksije

And one more, just to make clear what puzzles me:

'My father didn't say anything when I came home,'
a) She said that her father hadn't said anything when she had come home.
ORb) She said that her father didn'tsay anything when she came home.Somehow, solutions under b) sound much better ,in my opinion. On the other hand, sequence of tenses wasn't applied consistently in those sentences.